What Could Have Been: Sega Dreamcast (1998) Review and Retrospective

Once upon a time, Sega was easily a juggernaut in the game industry. They were the first company to create a console that rivaled the likeness of the NES with the Mega Drive or Genesis, which turned out to be a success and has become one of the most iconic game systems. But over the span of a single decade, they dropped from one of the top dogs of the console industry and resorted to becoming a third party developer. In 1998, Sega released the Dreamcast in Japan and a year later worldwide to much fanfare. But ultimately, little did they know it would be their last ever console.

In the mid-90’s, gaming was trending towards 3D with systems like the PlayStation and 3DO coming out. And despite Sega trying to keep the Genesis alive with the 32X and Sega CD earlier on, Sega eventually turned to their next system, the Sega Saturn. But between a disastrous launch as a result of Sega releasing the system 4 months ahead of schedule, an architecture that was difficult to develop for, and a lack of third party support, the system would lag behind the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 in terms of sales and Sega would come to the decision that the Saturn wasn’t their future. The Saturn saw some success in Japan, where it actually outsold the Nintendo 64, but for the rest of the world, the Sega Saturn was considered a flop. Thus, Sega would begin shifting their focus on their next system, codenamed “Katana.” The Dreamcast was overall a more powerful system than the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, using a 32-bit Hitachi SH-4 CPU with a 128-bit graphics-oriented floating point unit and an NEC PowerV2 graphical engine. It wasn’t as powerful as the other sixth generation systems that would come later, but it definitely had an upper hand over the PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn.

The Dreamcast launch turned out to be fairly successful in the US, largely aided by a big game selection from the get-go, but momentum wouldn’t last long, largely due to the PlayStation 2’s impending release after Sony had taken over most of the gaming market with the PlayStation. The PlayStation 2 was a more powerful system, but above all else, it advertised having the feature of DVD playability, something the Dreamcast didn’t have. And it turned out to be a feature that gave the PlayStation 2 a huge boost from the start. And while the Dreamcast had a good launch, the system’s momentum would run out as soon as the turn of the millennium. And despite Sega’s attempts to get more of a footing in the market, such as cutting prices of the consoles and making deals with the Dreamcast involving SegaNet subscriptions, ultimately sales would not meet their expectations and the system was announced to be discontinued at the end of January 2001, and that Sega as a whole would restructure as a third-party company.

But at the same time, the Dreamcast has not died in the hearts of many. There are a lot of fans of the system out there, and the system in general has developed a cult following that is still active many years later. To this day, the console is actively getting new (albeit unofficial) releases by independent developers and there’s still quite an online community making videos about the Dreamcast’s history and legacy on Youtube and stuff like that to keep the Dreamcast alive in the public’s eye.

Going back to hardware, I did talk about the system’s overall power but I also wanted to talk about some other aspects of the system. The console itself I feel is pretty solid - one thing I noticed right off the bat is that it’s a lot heavier than a lot of the other consoles I own, especially considering it’s size and as far as that goes it does feel pretty solidly built as if it was a console made to last. Of course, I have heard that there are problems with the system. Myself, when I first bought my Dreamcast I had an issue with the console resetting every time I turned it on and getting caught in a loop of turning off and back on. Ultimately, I had to take the system back to my used game store and exchange it for another Dreamcast that worked pretty much perfectly. I did look up the issue and it did seem like an easy fix but I still had my warranty and didn’t feel like opening up the system. Plus one thing that did stop me from buying a Dreamcast numerous times was issues I’ve heard with the console’s laser - according to some people it’s somewhat common for Dreamcast lasers to die after a while. On the other hand I’ve also been told it isn’t too much of an issue and isn’t really any worse than say, the PS1 or PS2, so I’m not exactly sure what to believe and so I guess I’ll just see if any issues pop up with the console down the line.

The look of the console I find pretty nice. I kind of felt like it looked like a bigger, thicker PSOne. Not necessarily the PS1, but the slim model of the console - the PSOne, largely due to the color and also lack of a reset button. The system also has a bit of a “wavy” look to it which I like. Also when you press the “open” button the lid to the disc tray opens up slowly as if it’s dramatically presenting the disc tray (and disc) inside. It’s a minor thing, I’m not even sure if that was intentional, but it’s something I find kind of neat.

There doesn’t really seem to be any other major variants of the Dreamcast aside for one, that being the Sega Sports Dreamcast which comes in all black with a “Sega Sports” logo on the console. This I actually like the look of more than the regular Dreamcast just because I feel that the all-black finish makes the console look really nice. Of course, it generally goes for more than what a regular Dreamcast costs and I’m not sure the all black finish is worth the extra $30 I’ve seen this go for over the average price of the Dreamcast but it is still a nice looking system.

I think it’s also worth pointing out that the Dreamcast was the first console that had online functionality built in natively to the system. It wasn’t the first console that had online period - before the Dreamcast there was the Saturn’s NetLink adapter, the Genesis’ Sega Channel and the Super Famicom’s Satellaview, but all of those were sold separately from the console whereas the Dreamcast came with a 56k dial-up modem from the get go which could be swapped out and exchanged for a broadband adapter. The console also had a Web Browser, long before this would really become a feature in consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox One, Wii and Wii U. Although the browser isn’t a native feature to the console, in fact that actually required a separate disc and I’m not sure about how that was obtained, and of course now the browser is pretty useless - after all it’s a long unsupported browser made for 1999 internet standards on a console with 1999 hardware so obviously it can’t handle modern internet browsing, but for the time it was a pretty solid internet browser that also allowed for Java and uploads.

Now, one thing that hasn’t always been well received with the system is it’s controller, with criticism largely directed to the controller’s analog stick and small face buttons. But after using it, I’ll be perfectly honest - I don’t think it’s anywhere as bad as people make it out to be. I don’t think it’s a perfect controller by any means - I don’t really like that the analog stick uses a hard plastic instead of a rubber dome and with the lack of a second analog stick and left and right bumpers I kind of feel like this controller would’ve become dated pretty fast had the Dreamcast stuck around for longer, but honestly I don’t really mind using it when playing Dreamcast games. For what it is, the games designed for the Dreamcast generally take good advantage of the controller and I find it pretty comfortable to hold and the build quality is honestly pretty nice. Even the issue of the analog stick using a hard plastic was something I was at least able to get used to pretty easily. I mean at the very least the analog stick doesn’t come loose over time and feel unresponsive like the N64 controller so that’s one positive at least.

But along with the controller, the Dreamcast brought in my opinion one of the coolest gadgets for a console I’ve ever seen - the Visual Memory Unit, or VMU for short. This was the system’s memory card, but with Sega’s desire to experiment they didn’t just make a standard memory card, but one that has a built-in LCD screen that could be taken out and used for minigames that could be loaded onto the VMU through certain Dreamcast games. Certain games also had in-game features such as Sonic Adventure having a Chao animation as you played which changes depending on your action - such as the Chao “gliding” when you’re in the air. Certain games straight up integrated VMU capabilities into the games themselves such as the NFL 2K games allowing you to choose your play without other players knowing. It honestly is more of a novelty than anything nowadays, but this was an interesting feature especially for the time and really reflects on Sega’s desire to innovate. I mean the Dreamcast essentially had a screen in it’s controller 13 years before the Wii U came out.

And now onto the games, I think it’s a safe bet to start off with a simple one - Sonic Adventure, this being the best selling game on the console and the game that fully brought Sega’s popular mascot to 3D after the struggles with the Saturn. And this game was also followed up in 2001 with Sonic Adventure 2. And honestly, what is there to really say about these games? While my personal favorite 3D Sonic game has always personally been Generations (which is also my favorite in the series period followed by Mania), both of these games were frankly solid titles that did a fine job of bringing the series to 3D as the company had wanted to do. There are people out there who claim the series “died” after going to 3D, but I think both of these games, while nowhere near perfect, are still fun and enjoyable to play. Although I will say that between the two I find myself holding a preference towards the first Sonic Adventure game but regardless I would say both of these games are definitely worth playing at least.

There’s also Sonic Shuffle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4

Crazy Taxi was also one of the best selling games on the system and definitely one of my favorites. It was an arcade game before becoming a Dreamcast game, but I feel like the Dreamcast port is generally what’s more recognizable to most people. And honestly, regardless of how you play this is a “crazy” fun game.

Okay that was bad I’m sorry.

But, well, it’s Crazy Taxi. Simple, arcade-y and fast-paced fun that Sega is pretty much known for as you try to drive customers around a city breaking a shitton of traffic laws in the process to get the fast times and more points in the form of money that you have earned by driving. It’s definitely a really fun game, probably not the “deepest” game out there or anything, but it’s just crazy, dumb fun that makes this game so addicting, memorable and fun to go back to. There was also a sequel to the game released on the Dreamcast as well, Crazy Taxi 2, but I don’t really know much about it to really say anything.

But I can’t talk about the Dreamcast without at least mentioning the cult classic that is Shenmue. This game has always been considered among the best for the system and to this day has a following that still loves the game, so much so that Sega just last year released the third game after the series had been dormant since the release of the sequel. I did play this game a bit for the sake of this review, but I kind of felt like it wasn’t a game I could talk about just by playing for a few minutes. It definitely comes off as a very expansive game with a lot to do, a lot to interact with, and for the time it was just a really big game with a lot going on and is often cited as the predecessor of most open world games today. I really can’t describe the game without putting a lot more time into it, but it’s a cult classic, and is not just considered one of the best Dreamcast games, but one of the best games ever made period. There was also a sequel to the game that I’ve also heard was just as great if not better, however the Dreamcast version of the game was only released in Europe and Japan whereas the United States had to wait another year for the Xbox version. Both games have also been re-released on PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, giving more people a chance to play this game, and in addition Shenmue III was also released last year for PlayStation 4 and the Epic Games Store, 18 years after the Shenmue II but it certainly does say something about the legacy of the games. Granted the Steam release got delayed another year for Epic Games timed exclusivity BS which I know shouldn’t really be a big deal but it definitely pissed me and many others off.

Soul Calibur also got it’s first and only console port on the Dreamcast until the XBLA release in 2008 and was one of the Dreamcast’s launch games in the United States. This is definitely a game I want to play more of, but it’s commonly cited as one of if not the best fighting games of all time and is seen as unique and innovative due to it’s weapon-based combat and eight-way movement. I did have fun with the game playing it for the review, and it’s definitely one Dreamcast game that I could see myself going back to on a regular basis. I also gotta say that for the time this game is really nice looking, definitely feels like a step up from the PS1 and N64 in terms of graphics and I can definitely tell it took advantage of the Dreamcast’s greater power even if it was an earlier game for the system.

The “2K” series of various sports games also got their start on the Dreamcast. NBA and NFL 2K, 2K1 and 2K2, World Series Baseball 2K1 and 2K2, NHL 2K and 2K2 and NCAA College Football 2K2 were all released for the console, developed by Visual Concepts which was purchased by Take-Two Interactive and became a part of the newly-founded 2K games. Admittedly I don’t really have much to say about these games - to be honest I’m not into sports in general nor really into sports games, but they are worth mentioning since they did become a franchise of it’s own, it is worth mentioning. NBA 2K is the only one that really still exists nowadays - NHL 2K hasn’t seen a console release since 2K11, World Series Baseball was formed in MLB 2K which in of itself hasn’t seen a release since 2K13, NCAA Football hasn’t seen a release since 2K14 (leaving many fans of that series to just stick with that version) and EA took over the rights to NFL teams and players after ESPN NFL 2K5 proved to be competitive with their Madden NFL series, so… fuck you EA I guess.

There’s also seme- I mean, Seaman, which is easily one of the most unique games on the console. It’s pretty much a virtual pet game where you literally talk with a fish with a human face using the Dreamcast’s microphone. I think I could just stop there, it’s definitely a very interesting game and honestly not like anything I’ve ever played. The Nintendo 64 did kind of have something like this with Hey You, Pikachu, but from what I’ve seen and heard this game this definitely feels like a greater calibur and in this case feels more open-ended with what you can say, making the “Seaman” more lifelike. You also have to check in on it every day in real-time, kind of like what Animal Crossing does but with more consequences if you don’t check in. Seriously if you don’t check on this guy and feed and care for him every day he’ll die and you don’t want that. I don’t have this game and I haven’t played it (unfortunately this game hasn’t been re-released outside of the PS2 in Japan), but it’s one I’ve always wanted to check out for myself just because it seems like such an odd, unique game. Not just for the time, but even now.

Samba de Amigo is another game I think is worth mentioning. It’s a rhythm game that from what I’ve heard you can play with the regular Dreamcast controller, but you can also buy a pair of maracas that use a sensor bar and an ultrasonic transmitter for movement intended for the player to match the patterns on screen. I don’t really have much to say about the game itself, it’s another I don’t own and haven’t played, but I think the maraca controllers show how experimental and ahead of it’s time the Dreamcast was. I mean keep in mind, this was years before the Wii came out and truly “revolutionized” motion-based gameplay, so it’s one area that the Dreamcast was just ahead of the curve and showed how willing Sega was to try new things.

Of course, I could go on, there’s a lot of great games for the Dreamcast. I haven’t really played much myself since I just got into the system, but for a game system that was only on the market for less than 1 and a half years, there’s just a lot of great games to talk about and many that you will run into. So I think others worth mentioning that I haven’t talked include of Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Skies of Arcadia, the best port of Rayman 2, Sega Rally 2: Sega Rally Championship, Daytona USA 2001, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, House of the Dead 2, Typing of the Dead (a game where you have to kill zombies BY TYPING THINGS ON A KEYBOARD), Virtua Tennis, Dead or Alive 2, Phantasy Star Online, Grandia 2… I could go on. On top of these too, there’s still a massive homebrew community for the Dreamcast that exists today, meaning that there’s still new content and games coming out for the Dreamcast even now - nothing official, but still something worthy of note. The Dreamcast community is definitely one I find really dedicated to the console and I honestly really love the fact that there are people keeping the console alive even now. Hell, I should also mention that while the Dreamcast was still available, there was an actual PS1 emulator developed for it. Only three official releases for it existed - Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo 2 and Tekken 3 - but they allowed for the PS1 discs to be played on the Dreamcast and on top of that cleaned them up even better than the PlayStation 2 and 3 did. Unfortunately Sony took them down before they were able to make more and while there is a beta floating around that isn’t title-specific it’s not really functional most of the time.

But yeah, the Dreamcast was all around a great system. Not only did it have a lot of great games, especially for a system with a relatively short lifespan, but it also had a lot of unique games going for it as well. This was definitely a very experimental era for Sega, so seeing them try new things and whatnot just made the Dreamcast stand out a little more over the other consoles of the era. I can definitely see how this system was such a leap over the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, not just visually, but this was still approaching the era where 3D games felt like they were being “figured out” to find what worked well and what didn’t and a base was being established for those 3D games, like what I said about the GameCube. But that didn’t stop Sega from still experimenting with new things, so the Dreamcast still had a library of unique games for the time. And considering all that, there’s a good reason why the Dreamcast still has a fanbase and is commonly considered among the best consoles of all time despite it not being on the market for very long and technically being a commercial failure.

But that just leaves the question. If the Dreamcast was such a great system with a great library… why’d it fail? Why was this Sega’s last console before they ultimately bowed out of the console market?

Well, here’s the thing. No matter how great the Dreamcast turned out to be, Sega simply did not have a lot of consumer confidence. The Sega CD and 32X both released and were quickly abandoned, and the Saturn was pretty quickly considered to be not Sega’s future. Hell, the Dreamcast itself was ultimately a result of Sega abandoning their previous console and wanting to start fresh again, and it made many skeptical on whether or not this would be yet another system that Sega quickly abandoned. And with the PlayStation 2 being announced and on the verge of releasing, I think it’s safe to say that nothing was going to stop the PlayStation 2. Sony was riding off the success of the PlayStation, and a console built up from that, plus DVD playability, all for $300 at launch, the PS2 was just going to dominate regardless. And this doesn’t just go for the Dreamcast, but also the GameCube and Xbox, which also didn’t see near the same amount of sales the PS2 did. But it’s safe to say that considering all the baggage Sega already had in this era, they were easily ones the most hurt by Sony and the PS2’s dominance. Despite having a great launch, it quickly fizzled out, and after not meeting sales expectations for the 2000 holiday season, the Dreamcast was announced to be discontinued, and ultimately Sega would end up being a third-party company.

Am I surprised that the Dreamcast failed? Honestly, not really. It was easily just a perfect storm of events that ultimately doomed Sega to fall out of the hardware business. Yet, it’s still kind of sad in retrospect. Sega at one point was a successful company, the Sega Genesis was really the first system to combat Nintendo at their own game, so seeing a company like that, go from being one of the industry leaders, to sitting out as a third party company in just over a single decade… it kind of sucks. Especially considering that the Dreamcast had a lot going for it, but unfortunately I guess some things are just not meant to be.

But the Dreamcast’s legacy is still apparent. In a lot of ways, the Dreamcast made way for the Xbox and that series of consoles. The Dreamcast did have some compatibility with Windows CE, which pretty much simply served as a way for certain games to be ported over more easily from the PC platform. This kind of gave Microsoft their first experience with the console market, and also comparing the Dreamcast controller to the original Xbox controller (the Duke or the S) especially, you can definitely see some influence. 

And of course, the Dreamcast still has a big community like I said. There’s the homebrew scene that I’ve mentioned, and it’s clear that the Dreamcast community in general has been dedicated to keeping the console alive, with new unofficial releases, and many Youtube videos covering the Dreamcast and it’s history. And after going back and forth on my decision to buy a Dreamcast so many times, I gotta say that it’s definitely one of my favorite consoles ever made after experiencing the system and interacting with the Dreamcast community and I have a lot of respect for the system, its library and just everything surrounding the console.

Do I recommend it now? Well, like a lot of other retro systems I’ve reviewed, that’s a maybe. I will say that a lot of the best games for the Dreamcast have been re-released on other platforms - including the Sonic Adventure games, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Samba de Amigo, and many others. But there is still a charm of playing them on their original console of origin. Although granted, some Dreamcast games can be on the pricey side nowadays. There’s still games you can find for a good price, but certain games like Jet Set Radio and Shenmue go for about $40, about the price of a new game, but at the same time you can still get the former for $8 on PC or even much less during a Steam Summer Sale, and you can buy both Shenmue I and II for $30 on modern platforms (and again potentially for less during a summer sale). Sonic Adventure 1 tends to go for a pretty good price, but I’ve seen Sonic Adventure 2 go for upwards of $40 just for the disc - again, a game that’s only $10 on Steam, PS3 and 360, even less in a sale, and really the only thing being better about the Dreamcast version being the cutscene lighting and the original Dreamcast “feel.” And then there’s Skies of Arcadia which I’ve seen go for around $100. It’s not the most expensive to collect for, but still not exactly a cheap console to collect for either and if you really want certain games on the system, you may end up paying a pretty penny for them. Oddly enough, I actually found that buying the games loose was a far cheaper option - in fact I actually bought Shenmue, Soul Calibur, Rayman 2 and a couple shovelware games all for $50 total in a single eBay listing with the only caveat being that they were all loose, so I do think down the road I will be largely buying games without their original case and keeping them in a DVD “book” with sleeves I have. I don’t know what it is about the cases that make the costs skyrocket, but whatever. 

Although you also can of course burn games to a CD-R and play them on the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast had pretty much no piracy protection and people were easily able to pirate Dreamcast games and put them on a blank CD. A lot of people will cite that as one of the reasons the Dreamcast failed, but I dunno, back then CD-Rs were still a pretty new technology and I can’t even imagine trying to download entire Dreamcast games in the era where dial-up was still pretty standard. Regardless, nowadays it is an option if you want to play Dreamcast games on their original hardware. It’s not “quite” the complete original experience, but it’s still pretty damn close, and it’s pretty much the reason why the Dreamcast homebrew scene is so big nowadays. I will warn you though that I have heard people having issues with playing burned CDs on a Dreamcast, in some cases causing damage to the system over time, so I will say that if you want to go down this route, be careful.  I think if you’re a game collector or just are fascinated by Sega’s history, I would definitely recommend the Dreamcast, but maybe not to “everyone” per se.